Feature by Julie Hale

If you’re shopping for a book-obsessed guy or gal who geeks out over all things literary, then you’ve turned to the right page. The holiday selections featured below offer the sort of author anecdotes, book-related trivia and top-notch storytelling that bibliophiles are wild about.

Can a precocious teen end the Cold War?

The first thing you may think when reading the opening pages of Stephen L. Carter’s engrossing Back Channel is, “What in the devil is going on here?” It’s 1962 and we’re at the beginning of the Cuban Missile Crisis. President Kennedy is in a townhouse with a 19-year-old African-American girl, but not for the reason you think. It seems that this young lady is the key to stopping the world from becoming a glowing, radioactive ember in the darkness of space. You can’t be blamed if your first reaction is bemusement.

The three sides of William Tecumseh Sherman

Robert L. O’Connell’s Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman includes a photograph of the celebrated Civil War general with his staff. While the other men strike classic poses and gaze into the middle distance, Sherman sits slightly slumped, legs crossed, jacket unbuttoned, glittering eyes focused directly on the camera. It fits with the popular notion of Sherman, the man who invented “modern war” and whose soldiers burned a path of destruction through the American South.

An unflinching depiction of slavery

Cy Williams is not a slave, but his life is far from his own. Growing up in Georgia in the 1890s, he knows that the cruel white plantation owner his father works for could throw him in jail or even kill him in a second.

Feature by John T. Slania

African Americans have been struggling for independence, equality and respect from the moment they were brought to the New World in chains. As that struggle continues today, it’s instructive to look back on our turbulent history to learn from the past and hopefully improve on the future. The five books featured here can help us to do just that, examining historical themes that serve as milestones on the journey of progress.

Feature by the editors of BookPage

Whether you’ve resolved to live healthier, nurture your inner creativity, curb your addiction to hand-held devices or communicate more effectively, chances are you could use a little help. Let the wisdom contained in these six new books expertly guide you to New Year’s resolution success in 2014. A new take on baby steps In Small Move, Big Change, Caroline Arnold introduces the...

Feature by Joanna Brichetto

The date on which Hanukkah falls is based on a lunar calendar, and this year it comes far earlier than usual—which means we don’t have much time to choose Hanukkah books for the children in our lives. You can’t go wrong with these selections. They either add a new twist to an old story or succeed in emphasizing timeless values with a light touch, and all are very entertaining....

Fantasies become reality

When L. Marie Adeline’s S.E.C.R.E.T was released earlier this year, it quickly became a bestseller, garnering praise for its refreshing—some said “feminist”—take on erotic fiction. It centered on Cassie Robichaud’s introduction to S.E.C.R.E.T. (Safe, Erotic, Compelling, Romantic, Ecstatic, and Transformative), a mysterious society devoted to helping women who...